Proposal calls for new building, more private rooms

Apr. 2, 2013

Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington / Free Press file photo

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Free Press Staff Writer

Ambitious upgrades at Fletcher Allen Health Care are in the early stages of planning, but they already signal multimillion dollar improvements, hospital officials said this week.

Estimating project costs is premature, but the price tag would “certainly be more than $120 million,” and initial planning for construction would likely cost at least $3 million, hospital spokesman Mike Noble told the Burlington Free Press on Monday.

A presentation to the Green Mountain Care Board dated March 21 offers a thumbnail sketch of the hospital’s big-ticket wish-list (with estimated costs):

• A new, 2 or 3-story building adjacent to the Emergency Department to expand the number of single-bed rooms ($85 million)

The scale of anticipated improvements require Fletcher Allen to file certificates of need with the Green Mountain Care Board — a procedure that will continue until mid-year, he said.

David Keelty, the hospital’s planning director, said higher standards for infection-reduction and privacy are driving proposed construction of 48 patient rooms in a new building.

“We’re not envisioning any growth in the number of beds, but see this as part of our ongoing modernization of inpatient facilities,” Keelty told the Burlington Free Press.

A “significant planning effort” would likely begin this fall, Keelty added, and could take about one year to complete — at which point he could begin filing for a certificate of need for the bricks-and-mortar projects.

Noble explained the lack of detail in the summarized plans, “This is still a long, long ways away.”